20 May 2009

US President Barack Obama's new peace plan for the Middle East continues to unravel, ahead of it official presentation in Cairo, on June 4.

Official Palestinian Authority sources told Ynet Wednesday that following Jordan's King Abdullah's visit to Washington, as well as other visits to the US capital, they were given the impression that any new American peace plan would call for establishing a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.

The source stressed that the US official also assured them the new plan would include halting all settlement construction, as well as setting a clear timetable for the realization of the two-state solution and a commitment that the permanent peace agreement would be negotiated according to the understanding set by the Arab peace initiative.

The US plans to add "improvements" to the Arab peace plan: According to an early May report in London-based Arabic-language newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi, the revised plan will include reintegrating Palestinian refugees either in various Arab nations, or in the demilitarized Palestinian state, and Israel and the Palestinian Authority would agree to a land exchange.

The revised plan is also said to call for east Jerusalem to be made the new state's capital – with the Palestinian Authority's flag waving over it official institutions and the UN banner waving over the Old City and places sacred to Judaism, Islam and Christianity....

17 May 2009

But, only actions will tell the true tale. Let's see what comes from this trip to DC.

Netanyahu Sees Iran as Amalek, Advisor Says(IsraelNN.com) An advisor to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has compared Netanyahu's attitude towards Iran to the traditional Jewish view of Amalek, the ultimate enemy which must be destroyed.Journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, writing in the New York Times Op-Ed section Saturday, said that Netanyahu is not bluffing with regard to the possibility of Israel attacking Iran," Goldberg writes. "His preoccupation with the Iranian nuclear program seems sincere and deeply felt. I recently asked one of his advisers to gauge for me the depth of Mr. Netanyahu’s anxiety about Iran. His answer: 'Think Amalek.'"

14 May 2009

(IsraelNN.com) In an interview which aired May 7 on ANB TV, PLO Ambassador to Lebanon Abbas Zaki rejected initiatives, talks, and ceasefires, and called for the implementation of the two state solution because it will destroy Israel. “With the two-state solution, in my opinion, Israel will collapse, because if they get out of Jerusalem, what will become of all the talk about the Promised Land and the Chosen People? What will become of all the sacrifices they made, just to be told to leave?”

“They consider Jerusalem to have a spiritual status. The Jews consider Judea and Samaria to be their historic dream. If the Jews leave those places, the Zionist idea will begin to collapse. It will regress of its own accord. Then we will move forward.”
A rule of thumb for Days of Mashiach: The more dire our situation looks, in reality, the better it bodes for us.

Traffic axes that will be closed:
The following streets and those leading to them will alternately be closed to traffic for a few hours:
Ma'ale HaShalom, Ha'Ofel, Derech Yericho, Sultan Suleiman, Ben Adiya, Wadi Joz, Buber, Batei Machseh, City of David, Yitzchak Kariv, Shlomo HaMelech, Yanai, Koresh, HaTzanchanim, Agron, Rambam, Aza, David Ha'Melech, Hativat Yerushalayim, Tzir HaMusica, Mukdasi

Sites that will be closed:
Jaffa Gate - Closed to visitors between 11:00 am and 4:00 pm
Entrance to the Old City will only be through the New gate (Xian Quarter)

Learn how to read them and you'll understand how to respond to the events taking place around you...

Survey: Jews are Blamed for Economic Crisis(IsraelNN.com) A survey conducted by the Boston Review in its May/June issue shows that nearly 25% of American non-Jews blame “the Jews” a moderate amount or more for the financial crisis.

Furthermore, a total of 38.4% of the non-Jews in the U.S. attribute at least some level of blame to the group.

Police in Connecticut on Fiday took into custody the suspect in the slaying of a Jewish Wesleyan University student in a university bookstore.A Meriden police spokesman says 29-year-old Stephen P. Morgan was arrested and turned over to authorities in Middletown, who are investigating Wednesday's fatal shooting of 21-year-old Johanna Justin-Jinich. Authorities say Morgan threatened to kill other students and Jews.

The Palestinian Authority attempted to seize control of the "Bridge for Peace” visit by Pope Benedict XVI by claiming authority over media coverage of his tour in Jerusalem. It arranged a meeting in the Ambassador Hotel in eastern Jerusalem for journalists covering the visit, but Public Security Minister Yitzchak Aharonovitch (Yisrael Beiteinu) promptly issued an order to close the hotel....PA officials maintained that the government order will not stop it from taking responsibility for welcoming the Pope and supervising media coverage in Jerusalem's Old City, arguing that arrangements for the tour are its responsibility.“Eastern Jerusalem is our responsibility, and we are supposed to take care of all matters there, including the Pope’s visit,” officials told the Hebrew-language web site of the Yediot Acharonot newspaper.

(IsraelNN.com) Russia, which chairs the UN Security Council this month, has asked the council to push Israel to make peace with the Palestinian Authority in a council meeting on Monday. Russia said the meeting should stress the “urgency of reaching comprehensive peace in the Middle East.”

Un Chief Ban Ki Moon, as well as US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice, and foreign ministers from Austria, Turkey, Britain, and Russia will participate in the UN session on Monday. A preliminary draft statement said, “Vigorous diplomatic action is needed to attain the goal set by the international community.”

(IsraelNN.com) U.S. President Barack Obama should let Israel take military action to stave off a nuclear Iran, according to Monday’s Wall Street Journal. Editorialist Norman Podhoretz warns that Iran is close to gaining nuclear weapons, and that Iranian leaders have been outspoken in their willingness to use them.

Podhoretz notes that Obama has all but ruled out an American military option in Iran, which leaves Israel as the only country capable of stopping Iran. He warns that if not, “a nuclear exchange would become, if not inevitable, terrifyingly likely, and G-d alone knows how far the destruction would then spread.”

If successful, Binyamin Netanyahu's first meeting as Israeli prime minister with Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak at Sharm el Sheikh Monday, May 11, may well mark an epic turning-point in Middle East history recalling the 1979 peace breakthrough with Egypt. Their common goals – and Mubarak speaks for the Saudi king Abdullah on this issue – are the formation of an Arab-Israeli front against Iran and putting a spoke in US president Barack Obama's planned détente with Tehran. ...In strategic-historic terms, he believes that would be a more advantageous deal than succumbing to American arm-twisting. After all, Cairo and Riyadh are willing to stand up shoulder to shoulder with Israel against Iran – unlike the Obama administration.THE GEULA TRAIN IS ON-TRACK~Of course, we can't depend on the Arabs or the Egyptians, but anything that weans Israel off the American baby-bottle is good for the Jews. Even Obama is good for the Jews! Finally, the true face of American foreign policy and diplomacy are out in the open and not hidden behind a mask of "friendship."And yes, even the Poop's visit will turn out to be good for the Jews if he and the Arabs start a war over control of Jerusalem. Let them kill each other for it and then when they are dead we will finally live here in peace.About Iran....I think we will attack Iran and the fall-out will be very painful for Israelis with retaliatory strikes and devastating for Jews in chu"l with an explosion of antisemitic violence which is seething just below the surface.Time grows ever shorter. Don't give in to distractions. Focus on teshuva and tikun and preparing to greet Mashiach.

06 May 2009

We should tear kriah and sit in sack and ashes for the chillul Hashem of this man's "visit." His very presence will be an assault on the Holy Land. He is a criminal and instead of being welcomed and courted, he should be arrested and executed.

He, by virtue of his office, is guilty of crimes against humanity. Among them...

1. The enslavement of the minds and hearts of billions of people into a life of idolatry and lies.

2. The denial of a normal marriage relationship to his priests, turning them into predators of young boys; who knows how many thousands of whose lives have been destroyed as a result.

3. The torture and murder of untold numbers of Jews because they rejected his false, idolatrous religion. (In addition, gentiles were also tortured and murdered for failure to recognize his authority over them.)

4. The looting and theft of priceless treasures, many from our Holy Temple.

It will be black days in Eretz Yisrael when this criminal sets foot on holy soil. I cannot even think about what will be when he approaches the Western Wall of the Holy Temple Mount.

We should pray that his heart and strength will fail and he should never reach his destination at all. Hashem should have mercy on His Name and on His blessed land and stop this desecration with His own hand.

04 May 2009

I think it is now clear that this was a very stern warning to the world. Because the world stands on the brink of destruction and the only ticket to life on the other side of it is teshuva, from both Jews and non-Jews.

All the things that we build our lives upon are being shaken---reliable parnassah, good health, peace among nations, the stability of the earth and weather patterns, etc. The only thing that can't fail is our Holy Torah---"It's a Tree of Life for those who grasp it."
For a moment the Shadow of Death fell across the world and everyone looked up in awe and fear---"Where can we go? What can we do?" I'm afraid that since it hasn't turned out so badly up til now, that people will not recognize the mercy of Hashem, but will promptly forget their fear and go back to sleep. That would be a tragic mistake...

Many public health experts expect the swine flu virus to retreat during the summer, when temperatures and humidity work against the microbe, since it spreads best under conditions of low humidity. "Of course if it doesn't. That's really bad news." These kinds of "herald waves" preceded past pandemics, and flu monitoring systems combined with the UNUSUAL timing for an outbreak may have allowed public health experts to detect the novel flu strain's existence before its expected retreat this summer. "We might be seeing the herald wave for the fall epidemic." It's "good news" that the genes of all the swine flu virus samples thus far analyzed are "99 percent to 100 percent identical." "It will be somewhat easier to produce an influenza vaccine, because the viruses that are spreading are so similar to each other...We'll be looking at what we call the evolution, the molecular evolution, of the viruses." They'll look for possible increased resistance to antiviral drugs — to which the swine flu does now respond. They'll also be looking for signs of increased virulence. The agility of the influenza virus to constantly mutate works both ways - it could also evolve into a more harmless form. "This could fizzle out and turn out to not be a very major event, or it could be a herald wave of some major public health problem."